Rainfall-discharge relationship and water balance over the past 60 years within the Chari-Logone sub-basins, Lake Chad basin

•Only 5% of precipitation contributes to the flows of the Chari-Logone river.•This basin is sensitive to variations in rainfall, an elasticity coefficient of 4.86.•A large part of the Chari-Logone basin operates in an endorheic context.•This study doesn’t show any evidence of an anthropogenic influence responsible for a decrease in the Chari-Logone discharge. Chari-Logone River basin, Lake Chad basin. The objective of this study was to better understand the hydrological functioning of the Chari-Logone basin under the effect of the high variability of rainfall which has affected the Sahel during the last sixty years. The study is based on hydro-climatic data for the period between 1960 and 2015 obtained from the national and international institutions. This work based on the following steps: 1) Average hydrological balances were estimated for different geographical areas, to identify the most productive parts of the basin. 2) The rainfall-runoff relation was compared for the wettest and driest decades of the study period, to identify the areas that contribute most to the amplification of the hydrological response to variations in rainfall. 3) The long-term period stability of the rainfall-runoff relation was evaluated for climatic conditions close to the average situation, in order to detect potential evidence of the anthropogenic impact. During the period 1960–2015, the average water flow in the Chari-Logone basin (42 mm/year) represented only 5% of precipitation. Between the two climatically most contrasted wet (1960−1971) and dry (1982−1997) periods, the average flow differed by 75 % against a decrease of 15 % of precipitation. Our hydroclimatic data show no clearly detectable evidence of an anthropogenic impact responsible for a decrease in flows or a modification of the hydrological regime in the Chari-Logone basin.